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A major focus of the International Year of Light and Light-Based Technologies was raising awareness of light pollution. With the rapid dissemination of LED lighting, one unfortunate side-effect is the proliferation of a higher color-temperature illumination. This has many documented negative effects on wildlife behavior and migration, as well as on human circadian rhythms. In addition, scientists are studying further problems in human health that may be indirectly related to different lighting, including higher incidence of some cancers.

Meanwhile, cities and towns across the globe enthusiastically switch to LED street lighting. The energy savings are significant, but in news reports of the plans and projects, there is usually no mention of the technical specifics (or “warmth”) of the light. Early bright white LED streetlights were mostly above 4000K, whereas warmer versions are now available, 3000K or below.

One problem with extremely bright light is that it impairs vision in darker…

Ten to 15
years ago, farmers used to laugh when Simon
Blackmore and his colleagues talked about deploying robotics for such
chores as weeding, protecting crops from disease or pests, or selecting
harvest-ready vegetables — all while helping to cut costs and limit chemical
and other impacts on the soil.
Now, he said
in an SPIE Newsroom video interview posted last week, they’re asking questions about how
robotics and other photonics-enabled technologies can help save energy and
money, minimize soil damage, and improve crop yield.
Blackmore, who is Head of
Engineering at Harper Adams University in Shropshire, director of the UK National
Centre for Precision Farming (NCPF), and project manager of FutureFarm, also
shared his ideas in a new conference at SPIE Defense and Commercial Sensing in April on technologies with applications in precision agriculture.
Blackmore
and his NCPF colleagues are working to overhaul current farming practices by
intelligently targeting inputs and energy usage…

Authored by SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics, the Photonics for a Better World blog focuses on research news and the many ways technologies are applied to advance science and improve quality of life, and on the people who make that happen.